Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The famous pastor John Wesley once asked his mother how she would define sin. Her response was powerful.
Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things. Whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself. Wow. We must be ruthless with the things that draw our hearts away from God. loving him is our highest function.
Let's listen to this message from Deuteronomy thirteen titled Purge the evil from your midst. This is part three of a message first preached on July 21st, 2024, at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Listen to me. Love never affirms sin. Love is love is not true if what you love is what God hates.
Let me say that one more time. Love is love is not true if what you love is what God hates. Love never affirms sin. Because sin is disordered love. That's Augustine.
And Calvin said, Our hearts are idle factories. Because we pursue what we desire, and in our natural state, our flesh, we will go after things that we want, even when God says, no, that's not good for you. It's not right, it's not how I designed you. Let's put this on the positive side. What is loving God?
What is loving God? Because this is what God calls his people to. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Meaning. Loving God is three things.
Number one, it is the first and greatest command. Loving God is the first and greatest command. That being true, loving God is my highest function. There is no higher thing that I can do than to love God. And I'm not talking about a feeling or an emotion.
I'm talking about devotion, commitment. Pursuit. drawing near. There is no higher function. in which you can engage in loving God.
Thirdly, Loving God is realized purpose. It's how you define success. Why? Because it's what you were created for. And success is realized purpose.
So, Deuteronomy chapter 13 is hard. Jesus said some hard things too. You want to see one? Here it is: Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14 and verse 26.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. You say, Rich, how on earth? And some of you here, there might be some here today are saying, how could you worship a God like that? Here's what's at stake.
Your eternity is at stake. And God knows that. Yeah. When he says, come after me and does not hate. Hate means to turn away from.
if it comes to a choice. It means to turn away from if it comes to a choice. You have a spouse. That is not a believer. You are a believer.
And that spouse says, Listen, it's either me or Jesus. You have a choice. And what Jesus is saying is: if you're going to abandon me, just to stay married to your unbelieving spouse. You're not worthy to be my disciple. That's what he's saying.
It's not so common here, but listen, we have brothers and sisters around the world whose parents. Listen. Disown them because they become followers of Jesus. We have some even in this congregation today who have been disowned by family because they became followers of Jesus. And Jesus is saying, if you're not willing to do that, You're not.
worthy to be my disciple. Eternity hangs into balance, folks. We're not just playing with some Some religion that we have made up and say, oh, this helps us feel good and helps us get through the day. No, we are dealing with the infinite sovereign creator who made you and made you for himself. and loves you to the degree that he came and died for you to reconcile you to himself.
And if you do not know that You are bound for an eternity without him that is not. Pleasant. It's a very, very polite way to put it. And we don't say that with joy. God does not delight in the death of the wicked.
All of Scripture is invitational. Come to me and live, he says. Live for what I designed you. And what is that but to know God, to love Him, to delight in Him, to enjoy Him? Why would you throw that away?
Because you wanted to worship and devote yourself to someone or something else. The question then is this. Your self-assessment question. Who or what is my greatest love. Who or what is my greatest love?
And can you answer that? Honestly. I challenge you with that this morning. And then the third. begins in verse 12.
And it talks about a community. If you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God has given you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known. Then shall you inquire, and make sure, and ask diligently, and behold, if it is true that certain such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it, and its cattle and the edge of the sword. That's tough. That's Old Testament.
That listen. That command is not for us today. You miss me on that? This is the nation of Israel. And if there is a city within the nation of Israel that has decided to go and serve a different God, they've decided to become Baal worshipers, and now they are sacrificing their children in the fire.
God says you need to go and destroy that city. Old Testament covenant. God takes sin very seriously, do we? What would be the attraction here for a whole city or for a whole community to do that? It would be the attraction of magic.
Hey, there's magic.
Some of these false religions, they practice magic. And look at what they can do. This stuff actually happens, right? Or indulgence, because that's what all false religion does. It allows you to exercise indulgence in your passions.
Here's a point that we can learn from this. Truth is not democratic. What do I mean by that? The majority opinion does not determine truth. In fact, In fact, Jesus said the majority is on the path to destruction, Matthew 7.
The majority is not who determines truth. Truth has been revealed to us. It is objective truth. It is to be brought to bear upon our lives. What Paul said to the Romans, do not be conformed to this world.
Do not be conformed to this world. squeezed into its mold. We do have a tendency to want to fit in, don't we? We don't like to stand out. We've We fear standing out and being strange and called names by people.
John Wesley, young John Wesley, came to his mother. One time and asked her, what is sin? As I was asked that question one time by somebody who had attended this church for a very long time. What is sin? After they thought they thought sin, well, it's just a list of do these things and don't do these things.
Well, everybody has a different list. And so I told him: I said, sin is any thought or behavior contrary to God's character and purpose. And like, whoa. Because if we have a specific list of sins, everybody's going to have a different sin. And I am happy to judge people who sin differently than I do.
We do that all the time, don't we? That's what happens in legalistic systems. Everybody has a different sin. list of sins. And I'm keeping my list, you're not keeping my list, so I'm going to judge you.
Anyway, that's a different sermon for a different time. John Wesley goes to his mom, Susannah Wesley. Mom, what is sin? Here's her definition. This is so good.
Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God. takes off your relish for spiritual things. Whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing to you is sin, however innocent it may seem in itself. That's good. And what God is telling us from Deuteronomy chapter 13 and from the Lord's lips in the New Testament and the lips of the writings of the apostles.
Be merciless on what draws you away from God. Be merciless on it. Romans chapter 13, verse 12: The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. And then. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Be merciless on what draws you away from God. Now here's what happens, moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it was like this is a community responsibility. And in the church, it is, to some degree, still a community responsibility. But my challenge to you this morning is I'm speaking to you personally, individually.
Be merciless on what draws you away from God. God calls us to hate sin. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good.
and your deepest satisfaction in him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
